As
Orthodox Christians we must carefully examine every aspect of our
involvement in the world, its activities, holidays and festivals, to be
certain whether or not these involvements are compatible with our Holy
Orthodox Faith.

For
a while now everything in the outside world is reminding us that
Halloween is near: at school our children are busy painting pumpkins,
cutting and pasting bats, ghosts andwitches and planning the ideal costume in which to go trick-or-
treating. Most of our schools, local community organizations andentertainment on television, radio and press will share in and
capitalize upon the festival of Halloween. Many of us will participate
in this festival by going to costume parties, or by taking our children
trick-or-treating in our neighborhood after dark on October 31st.
Most of us will take part in the Halloween festivities believing that it
has no deeper meaning than fun and excitement for the children.

Most
of us do not know the historical background of the festival of Halloween
and its customs. The feast of Halloween began in pre-Christian times
among the Celtic peoples of Britain, Ireland and Northern France. These
pagan peoples believed that physical life was born from death.
Therefore, they celebrated the beginning of the “new year” in the
fall, on the eve of October 31st and into the day of November
1st, when, as they believed the season of cold, darkness,
decay and death began. Instructed by their priests, the Druids, the
people extinguished all hearth fires and lights and darkness prevailed.
According to pagan Celtic tradition, the souls of the dead had entered
into the world of darkness, decay and death and made total communion
with Samhain, the Lord of death, who could be appeased and cajoled by
burnt offerings to allow the souls of the dead to return home for a
festal visit on this day. The belief led to the ritual practice of
wandering about in the dark dressed in costumes indicating witches,
hobgoblins, fairies and demons. The living entered into fellowship and
communion with the dead by this ritual act of imitation, through costume
and the wandering about in the darkness. They also believed that the
souls of the dead bore the affliction of great hunger on this festal
visit. This belief brought about the practice of begging as another
ritual imitation of the activities of the souls of the dead on their
festal visit. The implication was that that any souls of the dead and
their imitators who are not appeased with “treats”, i.e. offerings,
will provoke the wrath of Samhain, whose angels and servants could
retaliate through a system of “tricks”, or curses.

In
the strictly Orthodox early Celtic Church, the Holy Fathers tried to
counteract this pagan new year festival by establishing the feast of All
Saints on that same day (in the East, this feast is celebrated on
another day). The night before the feast (on “All Hallows Eve”), a
vigil service was held and a morning celebration of the Eucharist. This
custom created the term Halloween. But the remaining pagan and therefore
anti-Christian people reacted to the Church’s attempt to supplant
their festival by increased fervor on this evening, so that the night
before the Christian feast of All Saints became a night of sorcery,
witchhcraft and other occult practices, many of which involved
desecration and mockery of Christian practices and beliefs. Costumes of
skeletons, for example, developed as a mockery of the Church’s
reverence for holy relics. Holy things were stolen and used in
sacrilegious rituals. The practice of begging became a system of
persecution of Christians who refused to take part in these festivities.
And so the Church’s attempt to counteract this unholy festival failed.

This
is just a brief explanation of the history and meaning of the festival
of Halloween. It is clear that we, as Orthodox Christians, cannot
participate in this event at any level (even if we only label it as
“fun”), and that our involvement in it is an idolatrous betrayal of
our God and our Holy Faith. For if we imitate the dead by dressing up or
wandering about in the dark, or by begging with them, then we have
willfully sought fellowship with the dead, whose Lord is not a Celtic
Samhain, but satan, the evil one, who stands against God. Further, if we
submit to the dialogue of “trick or treat”, our offering does not go
to innocent children, but rather to satan himself. Let us remember our
ancestors, the Holy Christian Martyrs of the early Church, as well as
our Serbian New Martyrs, who refused, despite painful penalties and
horrendous persecution, to worship, venerate or pay obeisance in any way
to idols who are angels of satan. The foundation of our Holy Church is
built upon their very blood.

In
today’s world of spiritual apathy and listlessness, which are the
roots of atheism and turning away from God, one is urged to disregard
the spiritual roots and origins of secular practices when their outward
forms seem ordinary, entertaining and harmless. The dogma of atheism
underlies many of these practices, denying the existence of both God and
satan. Our Holy Church, through Jesus Christ, teaches that God alone
stands in judgment over everything we do and believe and that our
actions are either for God or against God. No one can serve two masters.
Therefore, let us not, as the pagan Celts did, put out our hearth fires
and wander about in the dark imitating dead souls. Let us light vigil
lamps in front of our Slava icons, and together with our families, ask
God to grant us faith and courage to preserve as Orthodox Christians in
these very difficult times, and to deliver us from the evil one.